1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system and method for monitoring the activity level of one or more individuals and modifying the behavior of those individuals based on feedback from the activity monitoring.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), hyperactivity, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), is the most commonly diagnosed behavior disorder in children. ADHD affects 3% to 5% of school age children and it is estimated that it accounts for 30% to 50% of all child referrals for mental health services. At present, it is widespread practice in the mental health community to prescribe psychostimulant medication to treat ADHD. However, there is a lack of safety information concerning the long-term effects of psychostimulant usage on children. This lack, in combination with the negative side effects that can occur with psychostimulants and growing parental concerns over the chronic medication of children during their formative years, has created a need for a pharmacologically free technology for reducing hyperactivity.
In the area of ADHD, a pharmacologically free technology has developed that relies upon feedback and operant conditioning in order to modify the behavior of the hyperactive child. An example of such pharmacologically free technology is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,926 issued to Schulman et al. (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cthe ""926 patentxe2x80x9d). In the ""926 patent, the hyperactive child wears an activity measuring device which provides feedback to the hyperactive child by means of a set of headphones. Such activity measuring devices are called xe2x80x9cactigraphsxe2x80x9d in the field of human activity research. The ""926 patent activity measuring device is worn around the waist and contains three mercury switches. When there is movement, the mercury is displaced, and the contact in the switch is opened. Each mercury switch is oriented at an 120xc2x0 angle to the others in order that movement in any direction will be detected. Each time any of the switches are opened, it is registered in a counter, which is periodically reset. If the number of counts registered in the counter reach a specified threshold before the counter is reset, an xe2x80x9cexcess ratexe2x80x9d signal is triggered which causes the headphones to generate an audio signal, thus informing the hyperactive child that he or she has exceeded his or her allotted threshold of movements per time period. Two other counters maintain running totals of the number of excess rate signals and the number of generated movement signals. These running totals may be downloaded and analyzed.
Although the ""926 device was demonstrated to be efficacious, it was not commercially successful. The set of headphones was heavy and cumbersome, obstructing both interaction with others and normal movement by the child. Furthermore, the headphones were a conspicuous emblem of the child""s hyperactivity, one sure to be noticed by other children. Besides providing no privacy to the child, the obstructive nature of the headphones might skew any experimental results. In addition, the feedback in the ""926 device was limited to headphones or possibly a lightbulb. Because of the nature of the circuitry in the ""926 device, the headphones or lightbulb would only have one predetermined time period of sound or one predetermined time period of light, respectively, in order to inform the child of his or her own hyperactivity. There was no indication of the intensity of the hyperactivity so that the child may more accurately gauge and modify his or her conduct. Because only the crossing of the movement threshold is recorded, the experimenter also has no way of knowing or analyzing the intensity of the hyperactivity. Further still, the child only receives instantaneous alarms when the number of his or her movements exceeds a threshold but does not have access to the current cumulative totals and, thusly, the child does not know its average activity level over time.
From the perspective of the person using the activity monitor to analyze and/or modify the activity level of the child, the ""926 device is lacking in various other ways. For instance, one cannot get information from the activity monitor except by physically interacting with it. This may be done at the end of a session or experiment, but provides no means for one to ascertain the present status of the activity monitor during a session or experiment without being unduly disruptive. This is also problematic for caretakers, such as teachers, who may need to focus on many other details during the day, thus being unable to monitor the child""s progress. Because the threshold set in the ""926 device could only be changed by manually manipulating the activity monitor, it is difficult for the ""926 device to accommodate certain times when an increased or decreased level of activity is expected, such as lecture time or recess for children.
The measurements taken by the ""926 device are also lacking. First, as noted above, only the cumulative totals are provided to the experimenter or therapist, allowing no analysis of the child""s activity level at different times of day. Second, even if the cumulative running totals were downloaded several times within a session in order to create more than one data point, these running totals would still not provide the ability to analyze the activity level of the child as it changed over the time from the initialization of the activity monitor or from the last download from the activity monitor. Third, as also noted above, the intensity of the hyperactivity is neither monitored nor recorded and, thus, cannot be analyzed.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method for monitoring and modifying the activity levels of hyperactive children in which the activity monitoring device is neither bulky nor conspicuous. The system and method should be able to monitor the intensity of the movements of the hyperactive child, as well as monitoring the level of physical movement, which is merely the number of movements per unit time. Further, the system and method should record how the intensity of the physical movements changes over time so that a more detailed analysis of the child""s activity may be made. The system and method should allow for more elaborate forms of feedback for the hyperactive child, so that the child may understand how he or she is performing over longer time spans. Furthermore, there is a need for a system and method for monitoring and modifying the activity levels of hyperactive children in which data may be downloaded from the activity monitor without interfering with the child""s activity.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for monitoring and modifying the activity levels of one or more subjects.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and method for monitoring and modifying the activity levels of one or more subjects without using monitoring equipment which is bulky or conspicuous.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and method for activity monitoring and modification which uses the intensity of physical activity rather than the number of physical movements in order to measure the activity level of one or more subjects.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and method for monitoring the behavioral patterns of one or more subjects in which the changes in the activity level of one or more subjects over a time period are recorded, rather than just the final cumulative counts of physical movements over that time period.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and method of behavioral modification in which detailed feedback is provided to one or more subjects so that one or more subjects may monitor their own progress over extended periods of time.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a system and method of monitoring the behavioral patterns of one or more subjects in which the results of the monitoring may be remotely downloaded from the activity monitor without apparent physical interaction with the activity monitor.
These and other objects are accomplished by the present invention, in which, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of modifying an activity level of a subject, said subject being one of a human being and a primate, comprising the steps of: detecting a level of physical movement of a subject; measuring an intensity of physical movement of the subject, said intensity of physical movement being based on the detected level of physical movement, said measuring beginning at the start of, and being reset at the end of, an epoch, such that a measurement of intensity is produced for each epoch, wherein said epoch is a predetermined period of time which is continuously repeated; determining whether an epoch intensity measurement crosses an epoch threshold; and sending, if the epoch intensity measurement crosses the epoch threshold, an epoch feedback signal to one of the subject and a monitor.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method of modifying an activity level of a subject, said subject being one of a human being and a primate, is provided, comprising the steps of: detecting a level of physical movement of a subject; measuring an intensity of physical movement of the subject, said intensity of physical movement being based on the detected level of physical movement, said measuring beginning at the start of, and being reset at the end of, an epoch, such that a measurement of intensity is produced for each epoch, wherein said epoch is a predetermined period of time which is continuously repeated; determining whether an epoch intensity measurement crosses an epoch threshold; and sending, if the epoch intensity measurement crosses the epoch threshold, an epoch feedback signal to the subject, where said epoch feedback signal is proportional to an amount that the epoch intensity measurement crosses the epoch threshold.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a system for modifying an activity level of a subject, said subject being one of a human being and a primate, is provided, where the system comprises: a motion sensor for detecting a level of physical movement of a subject; means for measuring an intensity of physical movement of the subject, said intensity of physical movement being based on the detected level of physical movement, said measuring beginning at the start of, and being reset at the end of, an epoch, such that a measurement of intensity is produced for each epoch, wherein said epoch is a predetermined period of time which is continuously repeated; means for determining whether an epoch intensity measurement crosses an epoch threshold; and means for sending, if the epoch intensity measurement crosses the epoch threshold, an epoch feedback signal to the subject, where said epoch feedback signal is proportional to an amount that the epoch intensity measurement crosses the epoch threshold.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a system for modifying an activity level of a subject, said subject being one of a human being and a primate is provided, comprising: a motion sensor for detecting a level of physical movement of a subject; an epoch feedback unit and a session feedback unit. The epoch feedback unit comprises: means for measuring an intensity of physical movement of the subject, said intensity of physical movement being based on the detected level of physical movement, said measuring beginning at the start of, and being reset at the end of, an epoch, such that a measurement of intensity is produced for each epoch, wherein said epoch is a predetermined period of time which is continuously repeated; means for determining whether an epoch intensity measurement crosses an epoch threshold; and epoch feedback signal means for generating, if the epoch intensity measurement crosses the epoch threshold, an epoch feedback signal, where said epoch feedback signal is proportional to an amount that the epoch intensity measurement crosses the epoch threshold. The session feedback unit comprises: means for recording the epoch intensity measurement at the end of each epoch; means for calculating a session intensity measurement from an average of recorded epoch intensity measurements; means for determining whether the session intensity measurement crosses a session threshold; and session feedback signal means for generating a session feedback signal, where said epoch feedback signal is proportional to an amount that the session intensity a measurement crosses the session threshold.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of modifying an activity level of a subject, said subject being one of a human being and a primate, comprising the steps of: detecting a level of physical movement of a subject; searching for a match between the detected level of physical movement and a predetermined pattern of physical movement; and sending, if there is a match between the detected level of physical movement and the predetermined pattern of physical movement, a pattern recognition feedback signal to the subject.
Other objects, aspects, and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended, to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.